Business strategy
Charlotte Trecartin: when 15 million views sell nothing
Charlotte Trecartin explains how she gets people to notice and buy CharCharms and WallCandy, and why 15 million views brought no sales.
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7 min
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Most brands try to grow by following the latest trends, but scaling to ten million dollars often requires doing the exact opposite. It actually requires strategically breaking those trends.
Editor's note
Why this matters now
Charlotte Trecartin, founder of CharCharms and WallCandy, describes content series that reached 15 million views and produced no sales.
I would want that detail in front of me at the next content review.
Her interview also moves well beyond the feed. A retail buyer can place an order far larger than the company can comfortably fund. Packaging has to explain a product on a shelf. The reply from a customer can tell you more about the next design than a popular video does. She has had to deal with each of those problems while building physical product brands.
The source
What it says
Distilled from the original. The notes above and below are the editor's own.
Make the product easy to notice
Trecartin talks about pattern disruption, making something stand out among the things a customer expects to see. With CharCharms and WallCandy, that includes the product, the packaging, and the way the product appears in content.
A shelf is a different test from a social feed. Customers need to understand what the item does while looking at neighbouring products. A good-looking package still has to communicate its use.
Views can lead nowhere
She describes content series with 15 million views and no sales. The reach did not establish that those viewers wanted the product.
Her approach distinguishes the work of finding new people from maintaining a relationship with existing customers. She discusses different uses for TikTok and Instagram, as well as LinkedIn's potential to reach retail buyers.
The platform choice follows the person she needs to reach. A retail buyer and a consumer considering a small purchase need different information. Customer comments and conversations also feed back into product decisions, giving the company something to act on after publication.
The order still needs funding
Trecartin describes a retail opportunity growing from a much smaller order to a $1.5 million purchase order. Fulfilling it created a cash problem before the payment could help the business.
That is part of what growth looks like for a physical product company. There are goods to make, packaging to prepare, and delivery requirements to meet. A large order creates obligations immediately.
She also talks about preparing a retail pitch with evidence of demand and learning when to bring other people into the business. Her account connects marketing to the operational work required to deliver what has been sold.
Editor's note
What to do with this
At a content review, bring the customer action you expected beside the reach figure. Did anyone enquire, buy, or come back? A format that reliably gets views can still need replacing.
For a retail pitch, put the fulfilment plan beside the sales plan too. Work out when you would have to pay to make and ship the goods, and when the buyer would pay you. Trecartin's larger order is a reminder to do that calculation before accepting.
The original
$10M Founder: The Formula She Used to Grow a Viral Brand TWICE
The Anatomy of a Dream · 31 May 2026
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